Earlier today Nvidia launched a brilliant text adventure game to promote a mysterious forthcoming product, but a leak may have ruined the surprise. A series of slides resembling a typical Nvidia press deck has leaked (intercepted via VideoCardz.com), revealing two new members of the Shield family: A tablet and a wireless controller.
Many were expecting a successor to the original Shield, Nvidia’s multipurpose handheld console which boasted a built-in controller and a penchant for latency-free PC game streaming. I reviewed it and continue to evangelize it, even if it does target a somewhat niche audience due to its form factor.
Tablets, of course, are a little less niche. Though the Shield had a touchscreen, its clamshell design made it excellent for gaming but a little unwieldy for typical tablet usage like web browsing or snapping photos. Nvidia should be commended for trying to innovate, but I suspect sales didn’t back up their strategy. Putting the same features (and some new ones) into a tablet with a significantly more powerful GPU? Wise move.
For those not familiar with the Shield, its killer app was the ability to stream PC games from an Nvidia GeForce-powered home PC over your network or via the internet. With the recommended network environment, gaming on the couch (or in bed, or at work, or at the library) was effectively lag-free. It also boasted insanely powerful, rich sound, and a vanilla Android environment.
If this leak rings true (and as I said, it looks exactly like the usual Nvidia press slides), it means Nvidia intends to push the Shield brand forward by taking a less innovative — but still very effective — approach via its new tablet.
The Wireless Shield Controller is what marries Nvidia’s existing functionality to the tablet, and borrows from the best features of Sony's DualShock 4. It’s set to retail for $59.99 and has a built-in stereo headphone jack with voice chat support, volume buttons, a rechargeable Li-ion battery, and a capacitive touch pad.
Let’s explore what we know about the Shield Tablet itself. It will likely be Nvidia’s Tegra K1 flagship, packing a 192-core Tegra GPU and 2.2GHz quad core A15 CPU. An unlocked LTE version will exist on AT&T T +0.39% and T-Mobile. Wireless connectivity is handled by 802.11a/b/g/n 2×2 MIMO (2.4GHz and 5GHz). It’ll have an 8″ IPS LCD display at 1920 x 1200 resolution, and grant about 10 hours of HD video playback. (If it’s anything like the original Shield console, streamed PC gameplay will yield even longer battery life.)
The Shield tablet will also ship with 2 cameras: A front-facing 5MP HDR, and a a rear 5MP auto focus HDR.
That brings us around to the gaming features, of which there are several. Chief among them is the inclusion of Nvidia’s Shadowplay software, previously available only for laptops and desktop PCs. Shadowplay is a bit like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Game DVRs but more flexible. Shadowplay also includes Twitch streaming functionality, and Nvidia’s slides clearly indicate that front-facing camera will be utilized by Twitch. Furthermore, Gamestream will allow PC games to be streamed to the tablet, Console Mode will allow the tablet to hook up to a TV, and Gamepad Mapper will let gamers map the controls of Android games to the Wireless Shield Controller.
It’s shaping up to be sort of a portable gamer’s utility knife.
The Shield Tablet should retail for $299 MSRP for the 16GB Wifi version, and $399 for the 32GB LTE+Wifi version. An optional Shield cover will augment the tablet with stand functionality, and the Shield Controller will run $59. iIt’s expected to launch in the US and Canada on July 29th, and Nvidia will announce it next Tuesday.
It’s obviously premature to cast any judgment on the Shield tablet, but Nvidia did a superb job with their original Shield console, and the way they’ve pivoted to a tablet design, retaining the same functionality, should serve to open up this interesting Android/PC Gaming hybrid concept to a much larger audience.
Many were expecting a successor to the original Shield, Nvidia’s multipurpose handheld console which boasted a built-in controller and a penchant for latency-free PC game streaming. I reviewed it and continue to evangelize it, even if it does target a somewhat niche audience due to its form factor.
Tablets, of course, are a little less niche. Though the Shield had a touchscreen, its clamshell design made it excellent for gaming but a little unwieldy for typical tablet usage like web browsing or snapping photos. Nvidia should be commended for trying to innovate, but I suspect sales didn’t back up their strategy. Putting the same features (and some new ones) into a tablet with a significantly more powerful GPU? Wise move.
For those not familiar with the Shield, its killer app was the ability to stream PC games from an Nvidia GeForce-powered home PC over your network or via the internet. With the recommended network environment, gaming on the couch (or in bed, or at work, or at the library) was effectively lag-free. It also boasted insanely powerful, rich sound, and a vanilla Android environment.
If this leak rings true (and as I said, it looks exactly like the usual Nvidia press slides), it means Nvidia intends to push the Shield brand forward by taking a less innovative — but still very effective — approach via its new tablet.
The Wireless Shield Controller is what marries Nvidia’s existing functionality to the tablet, and borrows from the best features of Sony's DualShock 4. It’s set to retail for $59.99 and has a built-in stereo headphone jack with voice chat support, volume buttons, a rechargeable Li-ion battery, and a capacitive touch pad.
Let’s explore what we know about the Shield Tablet itself. It will likely be Nvidia’s Tegra K1 flagship, packing a 192-core Tegra GPU and 2.2GHz quad core A15 CPU. An unlocked LTE version will exist on AT&T T +0.39% and T-Mobile. Wireless connectivity is handled by 802.11a/b/g/n 2×2 MIMO (2.4GHz and 5GHz). It’ll have an 8″ IPS LCD display at 1920 x 1200 resolution, and grant about 10 hours of HD video playback. (If it’s anything like the original Shield console, streamed PC gameplay will yield even longer battery life.)
The Shield tablet will also ship with 2 cameras: A front-facing 5MP HDR, and a a rear 5MP auto focus HDR.
That brings us around to the gaming features, of which there are several. Chief among them is the inclusion of Nvidia’s Shadowplay software, previously available only for laptops and desktop PCs. Shadowplay is a bit like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Game DVRs but more flexible. Shadowplay also includes Twitch streaming functionality, and Nvidia’s slides clearly indicate that front-facing camera will be utilized by Twitch. Furthermore, Gamestream will allow PC games to be streamed to the tablet, Console Mode will allow the tablet to hook up to a TV, and Gamepad Mapper will let gamers map the controls of Android games to the Wireless Shield Controller.
It’s shaping up to be sort of a portable gamer’s utility knife.
The Shield Tablet should retail for $299 MSRP for the 16GB Wifi version, and $399 for the 32GB LTE+Wifi version. An optional Shield cover will augment the tablet with stand functionality, and the Shield Controller will run $59. iIt’s expected to launch in the US and Canada on July 29th, and Nvidia will announce it next Tuesday.
It’s obviously premature to cast any judgment on the Shield tablet, but Nvidia did a superb job with their original Shield console, and the way they’ve pivoted to a tablet design, retaining the same functionality, should serve to open up this interesting Android/PC Gaming hybrid concept to a much larger audience.
